Frustrated teacher having trouble with class hatching

[Born2teachuga]

This is my second time hatching eggs in my classroom and I have yet to be successful. Today is Day 2 of the incubation process of hatching chickens. A parent brought me some eggs from a local farmer on Monday wrapped in a towel inside a cooler, but I had not set up my incubator yet so I took them home. She said something about the darker color eggs were older about 2 weeks and she thinks the hen had been sitting on those, but the lighter colored ones were just laid. When I got home I researched how to store the eggs and got several different answers. I kept them wrapped in the towel until I read somewhere that I could store them in an egg carton and they had to be cool. I set them inside my house in a darker area and turned the ac up in the house and placed the eggs there. I kept rotating them in the carton as I would have if they were in the incubator. However, I couldn't really tell you what the temperature of the eggs were when i stored them. I'd put them outside in the mornings and my boyfriend would bring them in before the sun would come out. I do know one thing though. There was a smell to the eggs when I got them out of the cooler and some dirt on them. I removed the dirt by lightly sanding them. On Tuesday, I took the incubator to my classroom to set it up an get the temp regulated. Came home (still Tuesday) and my boyfriend said those eggs stink. I took them out and smelled them one by one and found about 3 out of 27 that had a funky smell and when I tossed them outside it looked like a soft scrambled egg inside. The smell tapered off a bit and I got my incubator regulated at 99.5 (Little Giant 9200 Still Air said this temp). Placed water in the incubator and the temp stayed regulated. I placed the 27 eggs in the incubator on Wednesday after letting them sit room temp in my room for about 2 hours before I put them in the incubator. When I put them in, the temp dropped and my students kept telling me what it's temp was (1st graders). I explained that I needed to let them stay in there for about 3 hours before messing with the temp. After 3 hours, the temp was still at 96.5 so I raised the temp a little and kept watching it. I had to take a half day and left the instructions with the sub to keep checking it for me and he said it got to about 100.5 so he turned it down a TINY bit. I explained how sensitive it was. He said when he left it was at 99.5. The eggs were turned twice on Wednesday. When I came in yesterday, the temp read about 96.5. I noticed the smell again so once again I smelled them and found about 2 more. Raised the temp and it stayed constant at 99.5. This morning was the doozie for me. Got to school and walked it to my class to find one egg had a dark green bubble on top of it. Opened the lid and it smelled god awful. Took out the egg with the dark bubble and turned the rest looking for any others but didn't see any. Put the egg in a bag and placed it in the trash only to have a student throw something out and make the egg crack (could have killed him). The egg had black stuff in it and now my room smells like a hard boiled egg. So far I've been losing eggs everyday. What do you think I should do with the rest? Should I just wait till I candle them or continue to wait to find eggs oozing until I can candle them?

 

[jayhopeter]

Has it been only the dark color eggs that have gone bad? It sounds to me like the some of them may have started developing already before you got them. Then they starting going bad once they were heated up again. Unfortunately if one eggs were to explode it may contaminate all the rest. I guess at this point check the eggs daily as you have been doing and remove any that smell bad right away. You should get at least some healthy chicks.

Then next year find a better source of "fresh" hatching eggs. Hatching eggs over 14 days old are usually past due. They should be stored at 55 - 60 degrees to keep up maximum hatchability.

 

[lynnemabry]

Sorry, but I bet the eggs that were older are not going to be any good. Sounds like they would have been better left under the hen. Not sure about how you stored the eggs, dirt may not have been a good choice.

The temp thing in the incubator, I wouldn't stress out as much.In my homemade bator I am happy if I can keep it between 97-102. So far all of the light colored eggs are developing.

Can you start with a new set of fertile eggs? They should be less than a week old and not have had a hen set on them. When I was saving hatching eggs I just left them on the counter at cool room temperature. Then rolled them a few times a day. I set in incubator big end up when I was ready.

Good Luck. My class is on day 10. I have even had to bring home the incubator for spring break. That was day 3.

 

[Born2teachuga]

I stored half the eggs in an egg carton and the other half in a shoe box. I just don't know if they were stored at a cool enough temperature before I set them. I know the parent that sent them to me said that the older ones had been already sat on for about 2 weeks and the eggs that were the lighter color were fresher but she didn't tell me exactly how fresh we were talking and whether they were sat on at all. I would toss the whole batch and start over but we only have 30 days left before school's over. The ones that look more golden, which are the older eggs I believe, should I just toss them? I really don't wanna toss all of them but then again I dont wanna make all these sacrafices with trying to find people to help me keep the eggs over the weekend because of Easter travel and they end up all dying next week. When is the earliest I can candle them to see if they're good because I really don't want to wait for them to explode. And all I could know is the white eggs that are the fresher ones might not even be fertile. Ugh! I really stink at this.

 

[Hhoky]

It sounds like your having a really hard time, So here

!
Ive never incubated, so I'm no help other than moral.
First from what I see around here, even long time incubators have trouble, just the fact your willing to try this hard for your students is amazing! Wish there were more teachers like you around.
Second, maybe if you put out feelers there might be someone in the area with eggs already set? And..maybe, if your really sweet you could convince them to volunteer with your project? Or maybe bring their set up in during the lockdown/hatching phase? (maybe right when they start to pip?) That was the kids can still get to see chickies hatch? Or see if you could just swap out your eggs for a few of someones that have been set a while and are almost ready to hatch? (not sure if the kids would be super perceptive and notice the egg difference, some of em can be super aware of stuff. Hee hee.)
If not, its possible you could explain to the kiddies that the eggs just wont be ready by Easter time (instead of telling em they are dying off) and see if you can get a farmer or local chicken raiser to come in with a momma and a few new babies? Show and tell chickie style?
I dont know if any of these might help or not. Just trying to find a silver lining alternative. I wish you and your class the best of luck. Keep your chin up!

 

[Apriljc]

The eggs have to be treated in one if two ways after being laid: either stored at cool temps to put development in stasis and then put in an environment of about 100 degrees for three weeks of development OR immediately incubated by a hen or incubator for the full three weeks. You cannot brood them with a hen and then "pause" development by cooling them until you are ready to finish. Once development us fully under way, the chick must finish or it will die.

The eggs from the hen needed to be incubated immediately; in fact, after two weeks under a hen, they should never be allowed to get cold.

The freshly laid ones, if removed from the hen pretty quickly, can be stored for up to 7 or 10 days before before incubating because the eggs halt development when they are laid until they are warmed full time by mom. Viability goes down the longer you store them. Find out what the proper storage temp and humidity are. If the eggs are too warm, even if not 100 degrees, they may slowly develop anyways which messes things up.

 

[wegotchickens]

The eggs that were sat on should never have been given to you!

I'd request new eggs if it were me. Just to be on the safe side.
Now that you know how bad one can stink, imagine the mess if one explodes in the incubator? You do NOT want that.

I'm about to donate eggs to a local science teacher. None of them will be more than a week old, and I will deliver them when she tells me the bator is up to temp and ready.

Also, I recommend getting white eggs if you can. Those are easier to candle.

 

[Emmalion]

OK keep them in the bator for 7-10 days then check to see if there is development with a flashlight. There is a great thread up top of this forum for candling and will help you along.

If you have the ones that were sat on for 2 weeks they are dead now. Sorry but thats just how it works if you start the incubation process whether hen or bator you can't stop.

So keep a good nose on those eggs until you can candle and tell what is good and what is bad. Bad is easy to spot once you have seen pics.

Good luck with the other eggs as those sound better to incubate.

 

[Born2teachuga]

I don't know of anyone in my area that is doing a project like what I am doing. So unfortunately, project pairing isn't an option and I wouldn't even know where to begin to try and stage a hatching. The ones that were fresher...if I ask and the farmer says that the hens hadn't begin to lay on them and they were freshly collected, do you think they should still be good even with being around eggs that are obviously no good? I just don't know if it's just too late to try and get a new batch because next week is when we get interims which means we're half way through the nine weeks. Day 21 is supposed to be on the 11th and the last day is on the 3rd of June. So now that I think about it, I do have still time if I absolutely had to start over. Where can I find fresh fertile eggs that can deliver it by next Wednesday so I could start over again if needed?

 

[wegotchickens]

Look for the thread started by folks in your state/area. They can help you find a breeder in your area.

The non-sat eggs may be fine. Can you candle them?